A new study maps the effect of global warming on common diseases suffered by the wildlife on Earth.?
The study warns that as the climate on our planet warms, such wildlife diseases will increasingly spread to the animals in the north.
Due to be published in the journal Science on Friday, the new study projects the spread of wildlife diseases across various ecosystems on Earth. A trend to be seen in these projections is the movement of parasite-carrying wildlife diseases to the north.
Based on this movement, scientists predict that animals in cold far-north and high-altitude regions are expected to suffer a dramatic increase in wildlife diseases caused by these parasites.
The study maps the potential?spread of these diseases over the next five decades. These diseases range from those caused by bacteria, fungi to others spread from viruses and infectious worms.
Co-author Jason Rohr of the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, highlights that there are serious implications for humans. ¡°We do know that 75% of emerging infectious diseases have a wildlife origin. We should be concerned for our own health when we see studies suggesting that there could be increases in infectious disease in wildlife.¡±
The study has been based on records of 7,346 wildlife populations. 1,381 of these were terrestrial and freshwater species, ranging from tiny insects to big mammals, across all seven continents.
The study then maps this data against the past climate records as well as the predicted scenarios for climate conditions over the next five decades. With the resulting data, the scientists calculated trends for parasites that spread wildlife diseases.
The study supports the ¡°thermal mismatch¡± theory of wildlife diseases. The theory states that the species adapted to cold scenarios are at increased risk when their habitats warm and vice-versa.
Scientists say that the cold-blooded animals are at most risk. This category includes amphibians, fish and insects, organisms that cannot regulate body temperatures to adjust to warming conditions.
Although mammals can partially adjust to temperature changes, an increase in temperature will also result in parasites like ticks that infect mammals with diseases, thus again putting them at risk, explains Jeremy Cohen of the University of Wisconsin, the study¡¯s first author, in an interaction with Reuters.
¡°Therefore, warm weather creates the perfect storm for parasites to proliferate in northern areas, where they may have previously been unable to thrive,¡± Cohen said.
Through the study, scientists warn that the current rate of carbon emissions and global warming, will lead to a sharp increase in parasites at high latitudes and high altitudes. They do, however, mention that this increase will be much smaller if the warming is slowed down.